Rand Paul flips, supports Mike Pompeo for secretary of state

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday voted for Mike Pompeo to serve as secretary of state, a last-minute change that allowed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to come up with a majority in favor of the nomination.

But despite that change, the committee hit a snag: Senate rules say committees can only send a nominee to the Senate floor with a positive recommendation if all votes there are from senators who are in the room. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., was not there, and voted “yes” by proxy because Isakson was in Georgia for the funeral of a friend.

That means according to the Senate’s rules, it was a 10-10 tie. Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., asked if Democrats would agree to a voice vote to send Pompeo to the floor with a positive recommendation, but Democrats said they were worried about that precedent.

Corker then took a break to discuss their technical options for moving ahead. When he returned, he asked if any Democrat would vote “present” to move Pompeo with a positive recommendation, and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., agreed to take that step.

Corker then asked for another vote, and Pompeo was sent out of the committee with an official positive vote of 11-9, since Isakson’s vote then counted once it wasn’t the deciding vote.

Despite that technicality, it was Paul’s decision to flip his vote that made the positive recommendation possible. He flipped from a planned “no” to a “yes” after meeting with Pompeo and talking to President Trump about Paul’s objections to the Iraq War and maintaining a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

“Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next Secretary of State,” he said on Twitter.

Just before the committee vote, Paul said both Trump and Pompeo assured him they remain opposed to the Iraq War and that they are eager to keep the U.S. away from new military conflicts.

“His goal is really to get us out of many of these wars,” Paul said. “So I actually want Trump to be Trump.”

Trump praised Paul for being flexible on the vote, and said Paul is a “good man” who “never let us down.”

The committee vote would not have mattered even if it went against Pompeo, since GOP leaders said they would call up his nomination on the Senate floor and approve him. But the expected vote of approval by the committee lets Pompeo avoid a black mark on the way to his confirmation.

Corker used the business meeting to defend Pompeo against criticism from Democrats, who pointed to comments made by Pompeo during his time serving in the House about gays and Muslims.

Corker said past nominees, including John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, were also congressional candidates who may have said things Republicans didn’t favor.

“They were confirmed overwhelmingly,” Corker said.

Corker said Pompeo’s record at the CIA and his resume make him the most qualified person for the job.

Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point, served in the army, graduated from Harvard Law School and served in the House, representing Kansas’s 4th District. He then took the helm of the CIA where he won wide praise.

“There is probably no one in the United States that knows more about what is happening in the world today than Mike Pompeo,” Corker said.

But the ranking Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said Pompeo “failed to exhibit the depth of knowledge,” about the world’s hot spots, and did not tell Menendez about his secret meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, although Pompeo informed the Intelligence Committee.

Menendez said Pompeo lost his vote because he “offered contradictory statements and was less than forthcoming when asked about a number of issues.”

Menendez, like other Democrats, said he feared Pompeo would not put diplomacy first.

Pompeo is a vocal opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, for example. which many Democrats support and believe will prevent military escalation with Iran.